There was a conference held on March 30 in celebration of the Washington Metro turning 40 years old. The conference was expected to be a small celebration for Metro, but it turned out that the chairman of the transit agency that oversees Metro ended up making a huge announcement.
The chairman said that Metro was in need of some serious repairs, and in the future entire lines may be closed for these repairs. He also said that if they close a line entirely they could finish repairs in six months, but if they tried to limit repairs to weekends and nighttime it could take up to 21 months for repairs.
This announcement was met with a lot of backlash from political leaders in D.C. as well as from daily Metro riders. A majority of people expressed that closing the lines for months at a time would cause major consequences for the city.
Personally, it seems ridiculous that anyone would ever think of closing entire lines for months at a time. The people of Washington D.C. rely on Metro to get them where they need to go. As everyone knows, people in major cities rely on public transportation and without it, it becomes difficult to get where you need to go.
The chairman then continued — and still continues — to justify closing entire lines if needed. He says that Metro is in dire need of repairs as soon as possible, which is understandable. But, it’s not understandable to close a subway system that over 500,000 people use everyday. It would be better to work on repairs on the weekend or to try and find an alternative solution.
The transit agency did say that they would be looking into the state of Metro more within the next few weeks and evaluate what needs to be done. A final decision about whether they will close any lines for months at a time should be made within the next four to six weeks.